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Right now, Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I'm reading it because a couple of friends, a cousin and I do a little bookclub podcast. We do speculative fiction. We take turns picking a book then nerd out about them. This was Will's pick. Last pick was mine, it was the first three books in the Hitch Hikers Guide trilogy.
After this, I'm pretty sure I'm going to re-read The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. Its been dozens of years since the last time I read that.
Great book but I highly recommend you read the second book, Fall of Hyperion, afterwards as it rounds out the story nicely. I know there are more books afterwards but I was satisfied after the first two as I felt that it completed the story nicely and j never felt I wanted more tbh.
Fall of Hyperion is a good stopping point. I liked 3 and 4 as well, but they're doing their own thing. I tend to think of it as two separate pairs rather than as a single 4 book series.
I keep meaning to go back and read the other two but just never got around to it. Would you recommend them?
I liked them. The arc of the first two is over. You get more details about the Shrike, but if you've gone years without reading further, I can't imagine it's that pressing.
If you reach a point where you're looking for sci fi, and don't have another obvious choice, go for it you'll probably like them. But I wouldn't recommend shifting them above anything in your backlog. Hyperion and Fall off Hyperion really are the stars here.
yeah, the ending of the second book is great. I also like how the questions are answered
I have just started Tress of the Emerald Sea by Sanderson. I love Sanderson books in general so I know I will like this but I have also read about 10 Deathlands books in the last couple of weeks so needed a break with something else for a bit :D
you are in for a treat
I feel like that is pretty much a given at this point when reading Sanderson, enjoying it so far!
Listening to murderbot diaries and restarting my read of house of leaves
I am reading the sixth book in The Wheel of Time series, Lord of Chaos. I've been working through the series for the last six months or so, with some other books in between.
I'm reading it now since it's finally finished and I can get all the books. I first read some of the books, first three or so, in the late 90's. At the time I was heavily in to fantasy and it was a well known series. I liked it back then, but for whatever reason dropped it. I guess I feel I need to finish something I started a long time ago.
Now, the Lord of the Rings has been my favorite book for a long time, and I see a lot of people comparing WoT to LotR, but I think it's not a very valid comparison. Similarities between the books are fairly superficial fantasy tropes. Jordan just isn't the writer Tolkien was, though he's not without his merits. It's clear he's heavily invested in the story and world he's creating, and it feels infectious. I like reading the books. However, where Jordan falters most I think is his characters, who tend to be insufferable all of them, with few exceptions. They constantly lie to, mislead and insult each other and it's hard to figure why they think they are friends. His gender dynamics are exasperating, with characters constantly acting like the other gender is completely inscrutable in all ways. It gets real old real fast. He's also overly verbose, this series could have been a lot shorter. But still, I read on and even enjoy myself. I might finish this series yet.
I been reading WoT for the first time this year and I am most of the way through the third book now. I agree completely, however they capture childhood friendships perfectly, how you would give friends from childhood far more leeway as friends than you would friends made as an adult. Eventually some people have enough and cut them off but it takes time. I would look at his characters the same way you are meant to look at Luke or Anakin Skywalker, as flawed, whiny, teenagers rather than well rounded adults. And same as the Skywalkers, their portrayal isn't perfect.
I also read that WoT is meant to be the opposite of LotR, Jordan positioned it as a critique of LotR. I do agree that few books at that point in a series (rather than say, a current Warhammer or Star Wars book, built on decades of lore) have the lore depth that LotR has, or such well rounded characters, but it had a lot more time spent writing and developing its universe.
I am enjoying reading it, but I set my expectations at wanting something better than David Eddings rather than something that for me is up there with Dickins.
I've never read WoT, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Tolkien's stories. No one will ever live up to Tolkien's brilliance.
I'm reading the Doorways trilogy. I read it as a kid and could never find it anywhere (even on zlib/Anna's). But i found that the author released it under a creative commons licence, and put it on his website, so I'm reading these books again.
I just finished "The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames". Ames worked for the CIA during the hayday of the Middle East issues (60's onwards) and was a direct back channel to Yassir Arafat. I picked it up on the recommendation of my ex wife, and for anyone interested in ME politics of that era it's an absolutely brilliant read. I'm now taking a gap with some much loved Terry Pratchett's Discworld (Guards Guards to be precise).
Yassir Arafat, haven't heard that name in a long long time.
Will take a look.
Road to little dribbling by Bill Bryson. He is so funny, i have to laugh out loud lots!!
Just Finished Blue are the Hills ny Lilly Piper. They posted their book here on Lemmy and I bought a copy to support them, but also because I love reading. Was great read and highly recommend it for anyone into science fiction. My next book up is Never Flinch by Stephen King.
Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed the first two books (Cordelia prequels) in the author's Vorkosigan Saga enough to want to try something else by her (since I've failed twice to get into the first Miles book). I think this is her only other big series? Anyway, it's been sitting on my TBR pile for a long time now, and I finally picked it up to read for bingo.
I don't mind a slow start, but IMO this had a very looooong slow start (~30%), to the point I put it down to read something else. Of course, it turns out I paused right before things started to pick up, so now I'm chugging along with it just fine.
The Broken Window by Jeffrey Deaver
Why, because it's the next in the series. I first started reading the series because I enjoyed watching The Bone Collector movie and they are an easy/fun read. The Stone Monkey is my favourite so far.
How is the series? I liked the movie, and the books are on my list, but I have a very long list.
They have been very good so far. Nice and varied.
Listening to Die Respawn Repeat.
On the fence about it. I like the premise but the execution seems not there.
Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan. I've read most of Riordan's other books (really need to catch up on the last few Percy Jackson related books), and I'm always head over heels for the way he takes existing myth and recasts it into a fun story that still plumbs the depths of the source material. This one is essentially "unknown to the wider world, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was based on actual events; what is the fall out of that today?" I've never read 20,000 Leagues, but I might have to do so after I finish this.
Right Wing Women by Dworkin.
Honestly a hard read. The usual esoteric language we expect from academics, mixed with a confrontational/ polemic writing style. It would be easy to dismiss her as the stereotypical fire-breathing man-hating lesbian radical feminist if it weren't for how compelling her arguments are.
I’m currently reading Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon. I recently finished The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley which is a scifi-horror with really heavy topics and events. A few were moments pretty disturbing but it’s a great book, I recommend it.
IPB is my palate cleanser before finishing off the third Kushiel book, which also has somewhat heavy topics in places. I try to read lighter books in between my heavy stuff. I just needed something that didn’t have too much death, mutilation, and dismemberment lol
A stubborn skill grinder in a time loop, royal road/kindle unlimited
I love time loop progression fantasy, ever since mother of learning I can't get enough of the sub genre
The Long War, sequel to The Long Earth by Stephen Baxter and Sir Terry Pratchett.
They're pretty interesting.
About to finish Streams of Silver by R. A. Salvatore. 2nd books in his D&D series.
I have been a bit irregular with the weekly thread, so thanks for making the post, I have made it sticky!
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. It was in my shame pile
Neuromancer.
I loved Cyberpunk 2077 and everyone keeps saying that it’s a rehash of Neuromancer so I had to give it a go.
I’m enjoying it but I feel like I might need to read this more than once, the writer’s style is strange to say the least and I feel like I’m never quite understanding what’s going on. I’m not finished but so far I think Cyberpunk’s plot hits harder, but that’s probably because I’m a brainlet maybe.
Also slowly working through Prologomena For Any Future Metaphysics. I’m trying to read Marx but to read Marx I need to read Hegel and you can’t read Hegel without reading Kant so here I am.
I have read Neuromancer three times now and I 100% know what you mean. You do understand it more with each additional pass that is for sure but personally I think it is a bit over rated.
Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, and worth a read but I don't think it is as good as people hype it up to be. I think part of that is the strange writing style.
I think a lot of the hype is because it’s the first of its genre. It does for cyberpunk what LOTR did for Fantasy I guess and in that regard I can understand the hype.
Also he’s very good at using simile and metaphors to give a feel to the world and to kind of separate the genre from science fiction. He does some nice things by describing organic stuff using artificial qualities. Like of course you have the iconic “The sky above the port was the color of TV tuned to a dead channel”. But then there’s this other part where Case takes this potent drug and the description is something like his bones became chrome under silicone or something along those lines that I thought was awesome. But the plot itself gets lost in all these very vivid descriptions and how he literally moves from one scene to the next without anything indications.
Additional reply so it doesn't just get lost as an edit but if you like those kinds of worlds then I recommend checking out Altered Carbon, I personally thought it was better than Neuromancer.
I saw the Netflix series and the first season was amazing, like one of my favorite TV series ever so definitely will check it out. Sad that the second season was so… stale I guess? I think Anthony Mackey is just not a very good lead actor.
The „Ibis“ trilogy, set in the time of the opium war. Heard about that in the great Podcast „Empire“.
Just started "Bullet Train". I enjoyed the movie, picked up the book, then it's been sitting in my bedside pile for a while now. Picked it because it's on top of the stack. :)